Bitcoin was the hot investment of 2013. Is it wise to think that the stateless currency will still be a hot investment in 2053?

That's what the bitcoin cognoscenti would have you believe.

SecondMarket, a finance startup, runs the Bitcoin Investment Trust, which makes direct investments in the virtual currency for accredited investors and financial institutions. Recently, it started working out arrangements with individual retirement account investment platforms so that people with self-directed IRAs could use their accounts to invest in bitcoin - starting at the low, low price of $25,000.

Convinced? If so, we have a few bridges to sell you.

By now, it's not news that bitcoin is a volatile asset. During April alone, the currency's value plummeted by 70 percent over the course of a few days - only to fully recover. Those are the kinds of wild swings that investors have come to associate with, say, junk bonds - not a valid, useful medium of monetary exchange.

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan made a number of mistakes during his tenure, but he was spot-on when he said in December that bitcoin has no "intrinsic value." Stateless currencies might sound good to the libertarian tribes of Silicon Valley, but when push comes to shove, regular people want a currency that's backed by a recognizable society.

Besides, bitcoin already is feeling the impact of global governance. In December, the Chinese government barred mainstream financial institutions from dealing in the virtual currency. Chinese exchanges moved quickly to change their deposit policies about bitcoin - and the currency experienced a serious plunge in value in that country from which it has not yet recovered. That could be the death knell for bitcoin. Every global business knows that without China, there's no growth.

And China is not alone. The European Banking Authority, Denmark, Norway, Australia and New Zealand all have sounded the alarm to their citizens about the currency. These actions will have an effect on bitcoin's value in 2014.

So why in the world would anyone invest money that they will need later in life in bitcoin? For the same reason that people continue to invest in Ponzi schemes, of course. But while Ponzi schemes are illegal - last summer, the Securities and Exchange Commission brought charges against a man who had persuaded people to invest their IRAs in a Ponzi scheme - it's still legal, at least for the moment, for Americans to put their retirement money into something that has only the diciest of futures as a long-term asset.

Legal, yes, but certainly not wise to invest one's retirement money in something that is being investigated by a number of government agencies for its usefulness in drug trafficking and money laundering.

Let the bitcoin proponents talk all they want. But if the stateless currency collapses, those who have been foolish enough to pour it into their IRAs will be looking to the state for relief.